SPONSORED CONTENT: For prospective families considering a private school education for their children, local private schools are opening their doors to for upcoming Open House events. These visits offer a valuable opportunity to explore campus facilities, meet dedicated administrators and faculty, observe engaging classroom environments, and learn more about each school’s unique educational philosophy and curriculum. Whether your family is considering early childhood programs, elementary foundations, or college preparatory middle and high schools, attending an Open House is the ideal way to ask questions, discover extracurricular offerings, and experience firsthand the vibrant community culture each school has to offer.

Find the right academic environment for your student.

Don’t see your private school listed here? Contact theswellesleyreport@gmail.com to learn about inclusion.

DCD—Classroom Observation Day, Friday, October 16, 8:30 to 10:30 AM
Register here

Pre-K to Grade 8
90 Sandy Valley Rd., Dedham, MA 02026

Classroom Observations are DCD’s version of an Open House. Experience a typical morning with students and teachers, and explore our brand-new theater and learning spaces! Register now for Oct. 16, Nov. 12, or Jan. 8 to see how your student can thrive at DCD.

St. John School, Open House—Sunday, Oct. 18, 10am-11:30am
Register here

Pre-school – 6
9 Ledyard St., Wellesley, MA 02481
Built on the cornerstones of Academic Excellence, Faith Development, and Community, Saint John School provides an education within an atmosphere of Christian concern, commitment, and dedication to service.

Veritas Christian Academy Open Houses
Oct. 22, 9am-10:30am; Nov. 5, 9am-10am; Nov. 8, 2pm-3:30pm; Nov. 19, 9am-10am
Register here
Grades K-8
6 Loker St., Wayland, MA 01778

Veritas is a pre-school through grade 8 learning community cultivating inquiring minds, authentic faith, and compassionate hearts. Choosing the right school is important and we’d love to get to know your family.

Dana Hall School—Open House, Saturday, Oct. 24, 1-3:30pm
Register here

Grades 5-12
45 Dana Road, Wellesley, MA 02482

An à la carte-style event that lets you customize your day: look inside our classrooms, step into mini-lessons across various academic subjects, talk with program directors, and meet our school administrators to see how you will thrive here.

Walnut Hill School, Open House—Sunday, Oct. 25, 1pm-4:30pm
Register here
Grades 9-12
12 Highland St., Natick, MA 01760

Star Academy Boston, Open House—Oct. 27 (Watertown) & Oct. 28 (Wellesley)

Discover a school where small classes, strong academics, and individualized learning help every student grow. Meet our teachers, explore our campuses, and learn more about Star Academy. Register: staracademyboston.com/open-house/

Watertown Campus—Preschool & Grades K–5; October 27, 9:30-11:30am
Wellesley Campus—Preschool & Grades 6–12; October 28, 9:30-11:30am

Fay School, Open House—Sunday, Nov. 1
Register here

K – grade 9
48 Main Street, Southborough, MA 01772
Coeducational day and boarding school, located on a 66-acre campus, and is the oldest junior boarding school in the United States.

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Thank you to education writer and guest columnist Martha Collins of Admit Fit College Admissions Counseling for the following post. Need guidance navigating the college admissions process? Whether it is sage advice, expert edits or admissions interview prep, Admit Fit can help. Contact (781) 237-7770 or visit www.admit.fit.

SPONSORED CONTENT—AP courses can demonstrate academic rigor in high school, which is useful for your college applications. But many students may not appreciate that those AP exam scores have significant value once you get to college. And note, sometimes you can take an AP exam even if you did not take the AP course, or even if your high school does not offer the AP exam.

One of the biggest benefits of earning AP credit is you may not have to take as many courses during a particular semester once you are in college. For example, if a college awards you eight credits for a strong AP Calculus BC score, those credits may allow you to skip introductory courses and create room in your schedule. Instead of taking five courses in a semester, you might be able to take four.

That extra flexibility can mean more time for:

• Having a more manageable academic workload
• A demanding course in your major
• An internship, research or other experiential opportunity
• A second major or minor
• Athletics or extracurricular activities
• Studying abroad

Most importantly, accumulating enough AP credit may also allow you to graduate early or reduce the number of semesters of full-time enrollment.

Different colleges, different credit systems

But AP credit doesn’t work the same way at every university. Some colleges award credit that counts toward the credits required for graduation. Others primarily use AP scores for placement—for example, allowing you to skip an introductory course, but requiring you to replace it with another course. At some colleges, an AP course may satisfy a requirement within a major. And at still others, AP credit may count only as an elective or toward general education requirements.

For example, the University of Michigan allows AP credit to be used in different ways, depending on the exam and academic program. Some AP credits can fulfill major or minor requirements, while others count only toward total graduation credits or provide placement into higher-level courses.

At Tufts, AP credit is treated as course credit toward degree requirements, and some AP exams provide direct course equivalents. A 5 on AP Biology, for example, earns specific introductory biology course credit, while a 5 on Calculus BC earns eight credits.

University of Virginia explicitly says non-course-equivalent AP credits count as elective credits toward the degree, but do not satisfy General Education Requirements.

Boston College explicitly states AP units may fulfill core, major or minor requirements, but are not awarded as credit toward graduation. But 30 AP units can make a student eligible for Advanced Standing and potentially a three-year degree.

At Tulane, AP credit can satisfy proficiency requirements only in Formal Reasoning and Foreign Language; other AP credit generally counts as general elective credit.

UMass Amherst awards actual course equivalents for many AP exams: a 4 or 5 on Calculus BC earns 8 credits for Math 131 and 132. The university recommends students consult their undergraduate advisor about AP credit in their specific major.

Opting in, opting out

Another important point: reporting your AP scores to colleges during the college application process is typically optional, unless you want colleges to consider them for admission purposes.

But if you want AP credit or placement at the college you will attend, that college needs your official AP score report. College Board recommends sending scores no later than July of senior year. Check the policy for the college you will attend carefully.

College Board does not require students to take an AP course before taking its exam. If you are a strong student in the subject matter, consider preparing independently and taking the AP exam. And if your school does not offer the AP exam you want to take, you can arrange to take it at another local high school that administers the exam. Search the College Board AP Course Ledger, contact the school’s AP coordinator, ideally before mid-November, and ask whether the school accepts outside students.

Tuition-equivalent figures are illustrative estimates, not amounts that a student automatically saves by earning AP credit. Most full-time students pay a flat tuition charge, so the financial benefit depends on how the student uses the AP credit.

The AP exam fee is $99 in the U.S. for 2026–27. A strong AP score may earn you college credit, course placement, allow you to take a lighter course load while remaining on track for graduation, graduate a semester early, or otherwise reduce the number of semesters you pay for.

Need guidance when considering your AP strategy, tailoring your target school list, or crafting your personal statement essay? Contact www.Admit.Fit at (781) 237-7770.

The Wellesley School Committee at its Sept. 23 meeting voted 3-2 in favor of approving a 2-year-contract extension for Supt. David Lussier (see Wellesley Media recording 1 hour, 36 minutes in).

The result mirrored that from June, when the committee voted 3-2 to enter negotiations. Members Niki Ofenloch, Linda Chow, and Illana Nissenbaum voted to approve, while Dr. Costas Panagopoulos (chair of the subcommittee to negotiate the new contract) and Bob Sullivan voted against.

The deal, going through June of 2029, features an annual salary of $311k+, with cost-of-living adjustments. Lussier was hired by Wellesley Public Schools in 2012, and is finishing a four-year contract extension in June 2027.

Lussier’s supporters say he and his team have continued to lead a high-performing district that has undertaken new initiatives despite tight funding. Detractors from the parent and educator community have raised concerns about school rankings, families shifting to private schools, and various staff issues, among other things.

While the contract agenda item only took about five minutes, following weeks of discussions in public and behind closed doors, the School Committee spent about 50 minutes on the subject of bringing air conditioning to three elementary schools and the middle school.

The School Committee came into its meeting looking to possibly nail down motion language to bring to Special Town Meeting this fall to request design funds for what would be a multimillion dollar AC project. AC proponents say the schools need to be cooler in hot weather for students and staff to thrive.

This discussion followed efforts by various parties in town to explore ways to deliver AC sooner than later, with members of the town’s Facilities Management Department and Permanent Building Committee (PBC) putting their heads together on this in recent weeks in response to community feedback. While on the surface adding AC units to schools might seem straightforward (this has repeatedly been described as mainly an electrical project), such is not the case when dealing with old buildings, town government contract rules, and traditional timelines for seeking feasibility, design, and construction funds.

The PBC’s Michael Tauer reminded listeners that the town body he chairs essentially builds the structures that Town Meetings tells it to. He shared an update on a possible approach to bring AC to Bates and Fiske Elementary School next summer, followed by AC at Schofield Elementary School and the Middle School in 2028, with a request for construction funding for the first two schools coming at Annual Town Meeting in the spring. Splitting the project in two is projected to add $240k to the design study cost, and Tauer cautioned that issues could still crop up, such as supply chain delays, that would mess with the completion date.

One issue with the possible bifurcated project approach for School Committee member Nissenbaum is equity. That is, two schools would get AC ahead of the other two. Whereas others said that would be a better scenario than all four schools having to wait a couple of years. Under the scenario put forth at the School Committee meeting, the idea would be to seek Town Meeting approval for design funding likely via free cash, whereas funding for the other two schools would likely require a debt exclusion (short-term property tax hike) for funding that would be put to a town-wide vote. Chair Ofenloch said she was struggling with weighing the risks, such as possible change orders adding up, vs. the benefits of an accelerated plan.

The committee agreed by a 4-1 vote to go forward with a request to Special Town Meeting to fund design for all four school projects, and also accelerated design funds of $240k for Bates and Fiske. Plans are to run this all through town counsel for review.

At a Wellesley Educators Association (WEA) meeting on Sept. 16, the union renewed contract negotiations with the School Committee’s bargaining team, advocating for a proposal that included a request to restructure the elementary school schedule to increase instructional time on Wednesdays and increase teachers’ planning time, developmentally appropriate class times, and expanded learning opportunities for elementary students.

WEA contracts expired as of June 30, 2026. The union is currently negotiating with the Wellesley School Committee over wages, working conditions, elementary schedules and other issues affecting educators and educational support professionals across Wellesley Public Schools.

We asked to sit in on the meeting, but were told by School Committee Chair Niki Ofenloch that previously agreed-upon ground rules stated that such a request had to be vetted by both the WEA and the School Committee. The WEA said they were fine with media sitting in, but the School Committee cited short notice and a lack of time to discuss such a request among the bargaining team. Two WEA-appointed community members serving as WEA silent bargaining representatives also were not permitted to attend the meeting, a move the WEA said did nothing to “increase transparency.”

One of the silent bargaining representatives was Christina Horner, a Wellesley resident and former School Committee member, who commented, “How can we profess a commitment to community engagement and intentionally practice exclusionary practices that are designed to silence the voices of our educators, and lack both honesty, transparency, showing a blatant disregard to the stakeholders of this community?”

The other representative was a Brockton Public School teacher, who echoed Horner’s disappointment.

In an email to us, Niki Ofenloch said, “the School Committee’s position is that inclusion of members of the public was not agreed upon when the parties established the ground rules for the current round of negotiations in November. We do not agree with the WEA’s position that the current negotiations are open bargaining. We also reject the WEA’s alternative position that members of the public are somehow part of the WEA’s bargaining team.”

The School Committee has opened a collective bargaining public website , to share information related to the status of negotiations. The site includes an updated global settlement proposal that the School Committee shared with the WEA during the Sept. 16 bargaining session.

Separately, the Wellesley School Committee met for a retreat on Sept. 11. An Executive Session portion of the retreat was set aside “to hear and discuss a complaint brought against superintendent; and to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with nonunion personnel regarding the Superintendent’s contract.”

Executive Session portions of meetings aren’t open to the general public and aren’t live streamed or recorded for public viewing. Minutes of such meetings are eventually released, often with redactions.

We don’t know what the complaint part was all about, but there are any number of parties who might file such a complaint. The WEA has had a longtime deeply adversarial relationship with the superintendent—nearly three years ago, during the previous round of Collective Bargaining for the 2023-2026, WEA membership voted 94% “No Confidence” in Lussier. In addition, some community members have expressed deep concern about issues such as the high rate of families that opt to send their kids to private schools, and a continued slip in national rankings for the high school.

The proposed contract part of Executive Session is straightforward enough. The School Committee on Sept. 22 will either vote up or down the contract negotiated with the superintendent. Included is an extension of Lussier’s contract though SY2029, at an annual salary of $300K+, with provisions for cost-of-living updates. The contract also lays out time off, benefits, duties, what-if scenarios (what if Lussier resigns? What about termination?), and more.

Here’s a link to the Sept. 22, 6:30pm agenda for the School Committee remote online meeting. The agenda includes a live stream link.

MORE: Wellesley School Committee votes 3-2 in June 2026 to enter negotiations for extending Supt. Lussier’s contract

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